Runawaykiwi brings you SPAAAAAAAAACE

I love pictures of space. If I had all the money in the world I would buy up every single Etsy item covered in constellations and pictures of star snot (I’m sure there is a more technical name for the pretty Northern Lights style stuff in the Milky Way, but space snot will do for now).

So I was quite excited to hear of the Visions of the Universe exhibition that I thought was on at the Royal Observatory . I say ‘thought’ because the picture above is taken from the Royal Observatory looking down onto the Maritime Museum where it actually was. Hmm. Must learn to read tube advertising better.

But not to let an endless walk in the blazing sunshine put me off, I rolled myself downhill to see some stars.

The exhibition was exactly what it sounded like – a collection of the prettiest views the universe has to offer. There were quite a few of planets – but I have been a bit anti planet ever since they kicked Pluto out of the club. So I focused on the pictures of stars and space snot like the one below.

I also loved learning about exactly how we get the pictures of space. The better the cameras become, the more spectrums of light we are able to see – so even the views we know are getting more psychedelic as technology progresses.

Special mention goes out to Col. Chris Hadfield who until recently was in charge of the International Space Station. The beautiful images that he sent home (and tweeted) while floating in that tin can were some of the best of the exhibition.

After all, even when looking out into space we have an endless capacity for narcissism – what we really lust after are pictures of earth.